1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to an apparatus and a method for outputting control information which controls transactions for reproducing digital contents such as image data and audio data.
2. Description of the Related Art
Digital contents in such forms as movies, music, and broadcast programs consist of digital contents data such as image, audio, and text data. In the conventional digital contents providing system, these digital contents data (hereafter referred to as first digital content) are provided through removable recording media, the Internet, or digital broadcasts.
Second digital contents, also comprised of digital contents data such as image, audio, and text data, include advertisement information on goods and services, and link information to online shopping sites. The second digital contents are usually added to the first digital contents, and are reproduced by the users before and after the reproduction of the first digital contents when the users select to reproduce them.
However, under the above system, second digital content to be added to certain first digital content is already decided by the advertisement sponsor regardless of attributes of users. Accordingly, this causes the problem that some users are forced to receive information which does not meet their interests.
Further, in case that the reproduction of second digital contents depends on users' choice, it causes the
problem that the advertisement sponsors are sometimes unable to make users watch the second digital contents which they provided with advertisement at all, when users do not reproduce them.